Answer just 10 questions to create a book that explains the Gospel. Choose a favorite animal or human character and write a beautiful, fun and memorable book that includes Scripture. This is a great project for little kids who want to be Christian authors! It’s also good for older kids who need quick results. Adults can even write a book with a child’s favorite animal–these are great gifts!
Step 1: Open a notes or document app–or grab a piece of paper.
Step 2: Answer the questions that follow.
Step 3: Choose and create pictures online. Sites like unsplash.com, pixabay.com and AI tools like Gemini provide free and beautiful pictures.
Step 4: Put your book together. Create a doc with pictures and use a report folder or other homemade method. Or send your book to us, and we can publish it at a low cost with the self-publishing tools we use. CONTACT US to learn more.
* We want you to write! Send us your book for a chance to WIN FREE PUBLICATION and 10 FREE BOOKS! *
Get Started
1. Who is your main character? Are you choosing a favorite animal or a boy or girl? Write a few things about your character. For example: where is home, what are favorite hobbies, what does your character like to wear or carry around, etc.
2. Imagine a neighbor, sibling or friend is mean to your main character. Choose something very normal that happens to most of us. How does your character respond? Imagine your character is mean back or struggles with angry or sad thoughts. Describe what happens.
3. Your main character finds and asks a wise character (an elder of some kind) why others and we ourselves are mean sometimes. Take a moment to describe this wise character. Also, really think about why we harm each other. After all, life is easier for all of us when we get along. So why don’t we?
4. What does the wise character tell your main character? For example: God designed a paradise for us, but in the beginning, we disobeyed God who is love. We turned away. That’s why, every single day, others harm us and we harm others even when we try really hard to do what is right. Then your wise character offers to talk about a major event that happened long ago.
5. Scripture page: include all or the key parts of Genesis 3 (included below). Read and think carefully.
6. After learning about the Fall, what will your character ask and how will your wise character respond? For example, your character might say, “Is there anything we can do?” or “Will it always be like that?” Your wise character explains that we need to turn to God. It’s important for your wise character to say that we cannot save ourselves, but we need a savior. For example: God is love, and so yes, of course, God allowed a problem but also created a remedy. We must be saved by grace through faith. We cannot save ourselves because we do not have the power to do that, but God can save us.
7. Your main character asks why we cannot save ourselves. Why can’t we just do good things? How will your wise character respond? Here are some ideas: Your wise character might gently discuss how we are all sinning all the time, and so it is very hard for one of us to break away from that. For example, if just one of us wants to do more good than others in order to be better than others, this idea will spread and affect the good we want to do. Your wise character might also suggest how small we are in the cosmos and how short our lives are and how many mistakes we tend to make even when we’re old. Your wise character also might point out that those who try to be good without God will never succeed; in fact, by always trying to get better, they will sin more because they will be making themselves better rather than giving glory to God, our Creator.
8. Your main character asks: How does God save us? Your wise character responds somewhat like this: God is real and just and true. Whenever we hurt others, it’s very terrible to God who loves all of us. Just like people who steal or do violent things have to go to jail, something must happen to us for all the mean things we do. Not only that, we harm others when we ignore the poor and the sick among us. God has to punish us because He does not lie and must do what is right, but instead of punishing each of us, He sent His son, Jesus, to take our punishment. When He did that, He also showed us what love is.
9. Scripture Page: Please select from the scriptures below or add your own.
10. Your wise character asks your main character: what will you do now? Conclude your quick book by having your two characters discuss next steps like praying to Jesus from the heart or finding a good church that teaches from the Bible or reading the Bible every day starting with the gospels. Finish by stating where your main character goes next and what the day is like–how the weather is and what your character sees.
Scripture Page 5
(include all or parts of the following)
Now the snake was the most clever of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day the snake spoke to the woman. He said, “Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden?” The woman answered the snake, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch it, or you will die.’” But the snake said to the woman, “You will not die. God knows that if you eat the fruit from that tree, you will learn about good and evil. Then you will be like God!” The woman saw that the tree was beautiful. She saw that its fruit was good to eat and that it would make her wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of the fruit to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then, it was as if the man’s and the woman’s eyes were opened. They realized they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves.
Then they heard the Lord God walking in the garden. This was during the cool part of the day. And the man and his wife hid from the Lord God among the trees in the garden. But the Lord God called to the man. The Lord said, “Where are you?” The man answered, “I heard you walking in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked. So I hid.” God said to the man, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat fruit from that tree? I commanded you not to eat from that tree.” The man said, “You gave this woman to me. She gave me fruit from the tree. So I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?” She answered, “The snake tricked me. So I ate the fruit.” Genesis 3:1-13
Scripture Page 9: Choose from these or select your own.
Saved by Grace Through Faith
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4-10
Jesus Took the Punishment for Our Sins
And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Matthew 26:27-28
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. John 3:16-21
If you love these ideas, please subscribe to receive a new story kit every month. It’s free! We send printable story kits as PDFs.
Picture Tips
We use Gemini to make pictures if we want to show something whimsical (for example, in this book if you wanted a polar-bear version of Genesis 3, AI tools like Gemini can create fun pictures). Otherwise, we find that the best pictures can be the real ones available for free on sites like unsplash.com and pixabay.com. Here are some pictures including one of people! Please use these to gain ideas on what you can do.
